The Greatest Adventure Yet
by Throughrye
Summary: A short two-shot which reflects on two important mornings in this couple's married life.
1. Greatest Adventure Yet?

Son Goku shifted on his back and instinctively raised one of his long, brawny arms to his face. He shielded his eyes, preparing to meet with a glaring yellow sunrise and an endless blanket of brilliant blue- the blinding, yet breathtaking scenery that greeted him every morning during his stay on Kami's lookout. Experimentally, he cracked one eye open. Instead of the overwhelming, breathtaking panorama he expected, the first thing he saw in the morning was the off-colour cream of his new bedroom ceiling. As if on cue, the young woman sprawled ungainly next to him gave a soft snore. Oh yeah. Now he remembered.

A dull throbbing started to beat rhythmically in his head, the bi-product of too little experience with too much alcohol and a late night. He stifled a groan and stretched. He honestly had no idea what time of day it was; he usually went by the position of the sun. Well, so much for breakfast.

Tentatively, he readjusted himself and tilted his head to look at the person slumbering next to him.

She was obviously the kind of person that thrashed around in their sleep. Chi-Chi currently lay facing him with one knee drawn up to her chest and her arms lying heavily over his recently developed rippling torso. His body had morphed from a pleasingly rounded squiggle and into graceful, if not a little lanky, tower of solid muscle with hair sprouting where he had never had hair before over the course of the last few months. It was all very strange; his body seemed to have a mind its own lately.

The light, cotton bed sheets she had stretched over them for the night had been kicked off unceremoniously and lay pooling at her feet. She didn't look particularly comfortable, but Goku decided not to disturb her. If Bulma had taught him anything about women throughout all of their travels together, it was that they were cranky in the morning. He firmly chose to believe that as fact.

Goku shuffled into a more comfortable position and thoughtfully laced his fingers behind his head. More awake now, he stared distantly up at the ceiling and began to piece together, for the umpteenth time, the whirlwind of yesterday's events. His temples pulsating, he squeezed his eyes shut and focused. Two things immediately jumped out to him: the exhilarating fight and win against Piccolo at the Budokai and-

…Marriage.

Giving an uncharacteristic sigh, he tilted his head towards Chi-Chi again. Well, it was certainly a surprise. And he supposed with the light filtering down on her she looked quite pretty. For some strange reason, girls seemed to look more appealing lately. Gently, he lifted her arms from over his chest and placed them back down at her sides. She mumbled sleepily in response, her eye-lids almost fluttering open. Goku held his breath, praying that he hadn't woke her up. He was still feeling the faint traces of a hangover; an irritable Chi-Chi was the last thing his sensitive ears needed. Thankfully, she buried her head deeper into her makeshift pillow and remained asleep. This time, he didn't look away.

Soundlessly, Goku rolled onto his side so that he could study her face better. It was softly rounded, but had a sharp, stubborn chin. She had wide eyes framed by slim, black arching eyebrows- almost like spiders legs. A small, ski-jump nose jutted prominently from the centre of her face and tiny, dark freckles dotted sporadically across her cheeks. Her long, bluely-black hair was down, splayed out under her head like an ink spill. In her own unconventional way, she was quite beautiful.

Her mouth was hanging open and thin tendril of drool seeped out. For someone who bent themselves on being graceful and lady like, she sure let herself go when she slept. Reaching out a great, sturdy hand, Goku wiped away the dribble before smearing it across the rumpled pillow placed under her head. He then traced his finger slowly down her body, his touch feather light (as it could be) and his eyes following the steady, experimental movement. Her muscles felt firm under her flimsy nightdress, her body warm. His finger trailed over the smooth curve of her hips and… that was where he felt the material end. Oh.

The awkward way she had been laying during the night had bunched the hem of her nightdress around her waist, giving him a full view of what lay underneath. He darted his eyes away, but not before quickly eyeing her long, lean legs up and down. His cheeks a shade pinker than usual, Goku began to warily pull the dress back down over her hips.

Chi-Chi's eyes flew open.

"It's not what it looks like!" Goku panicked, his voice an octave higher than usual and waving his hands apologetically in front of his face.

"I'm sure it's not…" she replied, suddenly wide awake and eyeing him suspiciously. Had it been anyone else, Chi-Chi's quick reflexes would have left the person invading her personal space with a blotchy, raw handprint on their cheek in the blink of an eye. …Goku was just lucky she was letting him offer a suitable explanation.

"I…" Goku started, hurriedly thinking through what he was about to say to avoid upsetting her further.

The close proximity between her and Goku suddenly hit Chi-Chi like a train. Her eyes widened and a small fire began to burn in the pit of her stomach. He was so close that she could feel his warm breath wafting against her cheeks.

She cut abruptly through his dithering. "… Good morning." She whispered bashfully, her face flushing a healthy shade of pink. _…Blushing bride indeed._

She was so close that Goku could feel her warm breath on his face. The close proximity between him and Chi-Chi suddenly hit Goku like a train. He recoiled uneasily.

Disappointed, Chi-Chi leaned forward anyway, closing the small gap between them. Lush lips briefly brushed against his cheek before being pulled back. She made eye contact with him the whole time, examining his guarded expression and half afraid that he would decide to bolt. Immediately after the small imprint of affection, she swung her body up off of the mattress and braced her arms behind her. The room spun. Groggily, she raked back her fringe and placed a palm to her forehead, gathering the soft strands of hair between her fingers.

"Murgh," she groaned. "… My head."

Goku then watched in awe as she energetically scrabbled around in the dimly lit corners of the room, looking for something that appeared to be important. He'd only known her for a day and he was already picking up on how her personality seemed to rapidly change without prior warning. He just couldn't figure this woman out; she was a walking contradiction.

"This place is a mess and we've only been here one night," she moaned "I can't find anything. The first thing I'm doing when I get out of bed is cleaning this place up."

Goku cautiously asked what she was looking for so desperately, wary of her distress. He nodded towards the back of the bedroom, indicating towards the hair-clasp poking out from under the frilly abomination of his discarded tuxedo.

"How did you see this?" she gasped, surprised. It had been barely visible tucked between the folds of the_ handsome_ jacket and the hair-grip itself was tiny.

The young man shrugged as his wife clambered back over next to him. She gripped the hair-tie between pearly white teeth, expertly weaving her long hair into a plat that trailed down length of her back. After she tied it off, she flopped back down next to her husband and stretched like a fat cat in the sun, flexing her surprisingly dainty fingers.

"I thought you said you were going to tidy up the bedroom?" he inquired, sounding more confident than before.

"…I said after I got out of bed, didn't I?"

Goku gave up and went back to staring at the ceiling.

…Marriage could well turn out to be his greatest adventure yet.


	2. Seven

_Five minutes to seven. How ironic._

Chi-Chi stared unblinkingly at her slumbering husband, scrutinising and memorising his face's every contour. She was afraid that if she averted her eyes away, even for just the skin of a second, he would miraculously disappear just as suddenly as he had miraculously re-appeared. She was still finding the information that he was supposedly back for good hard to swallow.

Absentmindedly, she rubbed one of her raw, puffy eyelids with the back of her hand, golden wedding ring glinting as it caught the watery morning sunlight streaming through the crack between the velvety curtains. There was nothing left to cry about anymore and no tears physically left to cry. Seven years, nearly to the date shockingly enough. Seven whole years in which she had tried to bring up two children alone, live out in the woods alone, provide for a family alone….

And then one morning, quite suddenly, there he is filling the indent his body had left in the mattress she never quite got around to throwing out. It was almost like he had never left in the first place.

She was happy. Oh God, she was happy. She was so elated that her blood ignited and fizzed like fire when she looked at him, urging her to trash and writhe with ecstasy and excitement like the little princess bent on getting things her way that really was at heart. Pure bliss and joy filled her up inside, surging through every corner of her being so powerfully that she felt numb from the shock of it. The happiness disabled her, making her too weak to stand on her trembling legs.

But more than anything she was scared. She was more terrified of him returning than she had been of him leaving. She was so scared of falling hopelessly in love with him all over again, like the little girl she really was at heart. She was so frightened that the last seven years of buried heartache could be rewritten in one passionate night or forgotten about over the course of the next few weeks when life finally settled into a vaguely mundane, but at least safe, pattern. She was afraid of getting close to him again, only to have him leave for whatever reason and rip her heart out so painfully it was almost physical.

… They definitely needed 'to talk'.

Honestly, it was getting to be a very vicious cycle. But Kaios and Kamis be damned, he looked so beautiful laying there that he was magnetic.

Slowly, Ch-Chi drank him in, wanting to reach out but afraid he might melt away under her touch, disintegrating like a sand sculpture in the waves. Light dappled sensually across his bulging torso and his lightly-toasted skin was pulled taught over his rippling, lithe abdomen, just as deliciously as she remembered. Lush, glossy tufts of wild hair sprouted like a shaggy rug from his head, but each firm spike was deliberate and delicate, looking so soft to the touch but equally as pointed and lethal. Dark bangs draped and parted over thick eyebrows, his face more mature and angular than she last remembered it.

His whole body was immersed in some sort of ethereal, otherworldly glow; he looked a true alien beauty, his appearance alone making it not so hard to believe he really was sent to conquer earth in a steely spherical space-ship.

Cautiously, Chi-Chi reached out a timid hand and experimentally placed it on one of his strapping pectorals. The glowing warmth of his body pricked her palms and burnt the pit of her stomach. Lightly, her thumb massaged the supple skin in circles, her hand tiny in comparison to his imposing chest. She jerked back when he mumbled something incoherent and sleepy in reply, and started the motion again when he sighed in content from between blossoming lips. Gradually, she moved her hand higher and placed it fondly on one of his established cheek bones. Nuzzling instinctually against her palm, his mouth twitched into a vague smile.

Languidly, he opened his eyes and peered at her from behind sooty eyelashes. Her breath hitched in her throat, caught in the moment.

_**BBZZZZZZZZZZZZ!**_

The alarm clock wailed for attention, bouncing up and down and rattling against the bedside table.

Chi-Chi sprung up from between the spongy bed covers, reaching for the resounding alarm in fear of it waking the children. Yesterday was monumental and they needed as much sleep as they could get before emotionally adjusting to Goku's spontaneous return. Besides, she wanted to steal him to herself for a little while too. Yesterday, the entire family had crashed out from exhaustion before she had a chance to. He was never one for public displays of affection, however platonic it could turn out to be.

"Don't worry, I'll get it." yawned Goku, lazily groping for the alarm clock with one hand. Eventually, his fingers met with the snooze button and pressed down, flattening the plastic into a pancake and sending sharp screws rolling across the table top. The clock went into its final death-throws, woozy bleeping dying out until the bedroom fell to perfect silence.

With the enemy suitably defeated, Goku groaned and groggily pulled the bed-sheets over his and Chi-Chi's heads, hiding them from the world and its invading sunlight for just a few more minutes. He pulled his wife's warm body to his, pressing her back against his abdomen and nesting his face against her hair. The smell of sweat, sleep and yesterday's perfume filled his nostrils and he revelled in the scent. It was good to be back.

"That was my alarm clock, idiot." Ch-Chi retorted, trying her hardest to sound angry as she melted into the brawny arms engulfing her body.

"Sorry," Goku whispered simply, feeling his wife jump as his languorous lips sought her slender neck. "I'm sorry." He whispered again, both of them aware of its double meaning as his powerful hands stroked her sides indolently; sleep tugging at them into a dizzy darkness.

"S'okay…" Chi-Chi mumbled, another wave of darkness crashing over her as she was lulled to sleep by his embrace. She could hear the first scuffling of feet from Goten as she deliberately put off cooking breakfast, dragging out the time between her and Goku as long as possible.

An unknown number of minutes later, she actually felt his stomach lurch into a violent earthquake.

"Chi-Chi," he complained, his voice taking on the notion of a whinging child. "I'm really hungry."

Quirking into a fond smile, she rolled over in his arms and feathered a soft kiss on his lips. He sought into it eagerly.

"What do you want for breakfast?" she giggled, blushing like a bride and pressing her tiny, ski-jump nose against his.

"Everything." He sighed, trying to seek her lips to capture them in another fluttering kiss.

"…We'll see if we have that in the freezer."

With a final appreciative peck on the lips, he sealed the plaster he had placed on the gash in her heart. Five minutes past seven. It had taken ten minutes and she was already grinning like a soppy idiot, a loved up teenager, an idealistic little princess.

… _It really wasn't his fault he had to go; at least she had him back now, right? _

Things were far from perfect, but when had they ever been. At least it was a start.

Propping himself up on strong elbows, Goku watched Chi-Chi haul herself off of the mattress and swagger down the hallway, a signature, goofy smile splitting his face. His sensitive ears perked up as he heard his eldest son's deep voice sound "Mom, I'm hungry. Is dad awake yet?" from his bedroom. It was hard to adjust to that voice, certainly not the one he had left behind or the one he heard echo from the past in his head during his time in the Otherworld. Nevertheless, a strange, warm feeling surfaced in his chest and beat steadily with his heart. The feeling felt good; it felt good to be back, it felt good to be caressed, it felt good to caress, it felt good to talk to his sons, and it felt VERY good to eat Chi-Chi's cooking. … Goku didn't cry, but if he did, he definitely could right now.

"Surprise!" resonated from the kitchen; this time exclaimed in Goten's voice and followed by a shrill female scream and a clattering of silverware.

…Marriage may not have been Goku's greatest adventure yet, but it and all of its hybrid by-products certainly were for Chi-Chi.

* * *

A/N:

(SPOILERS. RUN!)

Seven years is roughly the time between Goku's 'sacrifice' at the Cell Games and his return from fighting Buu, when he is granted a new life and goes to live back with his family.

The first chapter is set the morning after Goku and Chi-Chi are first married in the final episode of Dragon Ball. The second chapter is set the morning after Goku's return from fighting Buu.

Thank you for reading, this couple need more love, I think. Reviews are lovely.

_Unbeta'd._

- Diplodoco


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